


TIMELESS

by chaoticbouquetsolo



Category: Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars - All Media Types, The Arrival - Fandom
Genre: Before TFA, Ben is trying to fix things, Canon, Crossover, F/M, I'm crying, Story of your life, The Arrival AU, Time Travel, World Between Worlds, she decides to not change the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25729615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticbouquetsolo/pseuds/chaoticbouquetsolo
Summary: I could have changed what was going to happen; but we have our time and we are timeless.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7
Collections: Let's Go to the Movies - Reylo Readers & Writers Prompt Exchange





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenOfCarrotFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfCarrotFlowers/gifts).



> I'm so happy I had the chance to write this AU/Fic (I still don’t quite understand the difference), I love this Story/Movie with my whole heart.  
> I decided to split this fic into four chapters, and i’m using little things such as phrases, descriptions, editing and terms from the tale Story of Your Life, Queen I hope you like this, I will be posting the others chapters next week!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think you will understand the universe and how this fic works if you haven't watched the movie The Arrival or read the book Story Of Your Life...Just a heads up, it gets confusing.

He is about to tell me. The most important moment in our lives and I want to listen carefully, pay attention. He and I have just come back from a government presentation, drinks, and talk. It's midday. We came out onto the garden to enjoy the summer breeze; then I told him I wanted to sit down, so he protested a little and now we’re sitting on the grass; two twenty-somethings sitting down on the dirty ground like kids. I don’t feel the heat at all. And then he says, “I need you to come with me”   
Right now he and I have been together for about four months, living on S Meadow Street on Eton; when we move out I’ll be a little sad of leaving, but we’ll keep pictures of the loft, tell each other stories about the time we had there. I’d love to tell everyone the story of this day, the afternoon he tells me to come with him, but the right time would be when he is with me and my friends, and we’ll never get that chance.  
Telling it to everyone any earlier wouldn’t do any good; for most of their lives, they won’t care to hear this adventure - they’d say horror-story. I remember the scenario of them asking about him.   
“Why are you sad? Did he try doing something too you? Finn will say, sipping his beer.  
“Don’t worry” I’ll say “I’m just tired, let’s just enjoy this night. Come on”  
“If I wasn’t so happy for winning the war I would say you’re lying.” Finn will say, walking with me to the table with everyone at the end of the bar.  
That will be in Maz’s bar on Takodana. I’ll live to see almost all the green in the galaxy. Meet all types of people and languages. By then I will have moved into a little house in Hanna City, to feel a little closer to him. Everyone will be living together on Coruscant.  
I know how this story ends; I think about it a lot. I also think a lot about how it began, just a few years ago, I think, when a ship appeared close to Eton College. The government said nothing about it, they evacuated the city and that’s all, while the media said everything they could think.   
And then I got a phone call, asking for an analysis of something.  
I heard them walking in the hallway, on their way to my office. I opened the door. They were a weird trio; one was clearly military, stern-looking, and carried a metal box. The other two were relaxed and seemed to be theoreticians or professors: one wearing a brown cardigan with matching shoes and a tie while the other was wearing a black theory of relativity pullover hoodie.   
“Lieutenant-General Nellan, I suppose? We shake hands “Rey Johnson”  
“Dr. Johnson. Thank you for agreeing with this meeting,” he said.  
“Not a problem; with all of this happening my schedule has been empty.” Lieutenant-General Nellan introduced the others. “This is Dr. Jessa Miller, the physicist I mentioned, and Dr. Gerard Davis, a linguist like you.”  
“You can call me Jessa,” she said, shaking my hand anxiously.  
“Gerard,” the other linguist told me, taking my hand.  
I lead them inside my office. I closed my laptop and motioned for them to sit; Jessa and the Lieutenant sat down while Gerard ran his fingers through my collection of books in one of the wooden shelves. “You mentioned a recording, I assume it has something to do with that ship on Eton?   
“I can’t confirm or deny,” said Lieutenant-General Nellan.  
“Okay, let me hear it”  
Lieutenant-General Nellan took a tape recorder from the metal box he was holding all this time and pressed PLAY. The recording sounded nearly like English or any other language but with a metal tone.  
“What can you say about that?” he asked.  
“Was there something happening at the moment of the recording?” I tried to look for a context.  
“I don’t have the authority to say”.  
“He told me the same thing,” Gerard said from across the room while turning a page on an old Latin book.  
“I can’t really comprehend the sounds without a context. Was the alien moving? Gesturing?”  
“The recording is the only thing I can provide you.”  
“From what I can hear they use the same methods as we do, linguistic speaking, but I can’t make any words out of it. But I assume they look human.”  
“Can you guess that based only on hearing the tape? Jessa asked excitedly.  
“Not exactly, I mean, I can hear that they used the larynx but I don’t know where the metallic aspect comes from, but that doesn’t tell me what they look like, It was a hard guess.”  
“Can you give us anything else? The Lieutenant-General was looking distraught.  
“I told you, we can’t tell you anything if we are not there,” Gerard said, closing the book abruptly and putting it back on the shelf.  
Lieutenant-General asked, “If I give you an hour’s worth of recording; how long would it take for you to understand the content?”  
“Even if you gave me three years’ worth of recording I wouldn’t be able to understand without directly talking to the alien.”  
He shook his head. “Not happening”  
I tried to get to him “That’s fine. But if you want me to learn a completely new language I need to interact with the individual in question; that’s the only way. I need to ask questions, maybe show pictures. So if you want to learn an unknown language, someone trained and used to do it- being me, or anyone else- will have to interact with the alien. The recording is not enough.”  
“She is right,” Gerard agreed.   
The Lieutenant-General frowned, with his right hand on his chin he proceeded “Are you saying that aliens don’t actually already know our language by monitoring us?”  
“That’s unlikely; unless their language is somewhere close to ours, or they had someone native or materials made to teach them.”   
The Lieutenant-General found that interesting; he was happy to know that the alien knew little about us. The less they knew, the better. Jessa Miller saw the General expression and changed sides on her chair; uncomfortable. I gave her a small smirk.  
Then Lieutenant-General asked, “If you could learn their language...could you do it without teaching them English?”   
“That depends on them, it would be like an exchange...They’d certainly pick some things while I was learning their language; that if they are willing to teach me. Unless they want solely to learn English, that would make everything harder.”  
The Lieutenant-General gave me a small nod looking at his phone. “I’ll call you later”.

The request for that analysis was possibly the second most big thing that happened in my life. The first, of course, will be when he disappeared right in front of my eyes. At that point, Finn and I will be really good friends and the Resistance will be counting on me. After I see him vanishing from my arms, though, the only thing I can’t think about is the Resistance.   
I will get on my feet, shaking, and get inside the X-Wing. What before I saw as a beautiful orange and white ship full of stories, it will now feel like nothing, just an empty steel machine.  
“You can do this,” I’ll say “Come on”

The soldier checked my ID, checked his pad, and gave a thumbs up for another soldier who opened the gate; I drove my yellow jeep across the now empty college campus, some tortilla-shade tents open at the entrance doors of the college chapel, military people coming and going, in and out of the building that was once full of students coming and going out of the two chapels. I drove along the Long Walk street; I could see the middle top of the ship, nicknamed “inverted pyramid”.  
According to the meeting I’d attended, this was the only one on the entire planet; they didn’t know if more ships were coming or if they were out of orbit for the satellite to see. A team of scientists was handpicked for this job, Gerard refused to work for the army, that meant it would be Jessa and I on this.  
Jessa was waiting for me next to the Saville House where the cars were parked. We walked side by side in silence, walking through Weston's Yard. Getting inside the New Buildings we passed a group of soldiers on their laptops working and talking; far away on the College’s Field, I could see the tip of the silver black pyramid from the little windows. Jessa opened the big wood door for the Garden leading me to one of the tents where the Lieutenant-General was waiting for us with the equipment I had asked beforehand. Outside the tent was full of barricades and Army trucks coming and going from the Field.  
The Lieutenant-General gave Jessa and I the keys for the dorms we would be staying in, explaining that we needed to give the full report every day before entering the dorm. Which mine had to include how much English I was teaching and how much I was learning.  
A soldier gave us a ride to the ship, stopping close to a table and a couple of chairs; a red spray paint outlined around the pyramid, thankfully they chose the red color and not the white..otherwise, it would be kinda difficult to distinguish between the activation area and the football field lines. Currently, the area was full of these tall bollard lights all over the place and a generator some feet behind the now parked car; we could hear some bugs around the far-away lights but the ones closer to the ship had none, it was as if the ship repelled them.  
Jessa helped me out with the equipment that was on the truck, a basket with a camera, a laptop, some cables, aboard, and some pens. We crossed the red line and as we got closer to the ship the tip detached from the rest, descending 8 meters; it worked like a platform. We ascended through the metal tunnel, red and white lights blinding us on our way up, the walls looked wet as if the warmth of the outside had come in evaporating the cold but it wasn’t cold, it just seemed.  
We walked down the corridor following the red cord that traced the path to the main room. The room was dark even with some fluorescent lights spread around and a couple of meters ahead a barrier made of glass that went from the ceiling to the floor, I couldn’t see the other side.  
Jessa started to connect the laptop with the other cables and equipment already installed in the room while I contemplated the infinite barrier that seemed to be made of smoke; I wanted to touch it. Even though I tried to be prepared for the aliens’ arrival, I was still startled when two of them appeared slowly on the other side of the barrier.  
We couldn’t make the details on their bodies but the similarity to the shape of the human body was irrefutable; humans. I could see their legs, arms, and hands when they moved but it was as if a black cloak was attached to the body of one of them, with only a red stripe on what I thought could be where the face was; the other, I almost couldn't see it, its color was similar to the smoke around them. Jessa called them “humanoid”.  
Jessa finished connecting everything and was waiting for me to turn around “Ready?” she asked.  
I took a deep breath turning back at the aliens “Ready”. I’d done a lot of other fieldwork before, in Peru with the Ashaninka and other tribes around the continent, it was always a bilingual process, if not I would always be accompanied by a translator or be introduced to the language beforehand. This was extremely out of my usual road, a true monolingual discovery procedure.   
I got a little closer to the barrier and one of them did the same. It was taller than me, as I watched it get closer I felt a warm feeling inside, I felt safe; which made things confusing for me. I could see the texture of the cloak; clothes. It was wearing all black, a cape, big boots, and a mask; the mask made me uncomfortable, it was broken in some places, glued together with something red. The place where the eyes were supposed to be was like looking into a void.   
I pointed to myself and said slowly, “Human”. Then I pointed to Jessa and said again. Then I pointed at them “What are you?”   
No response. I tried again, three times.  
One of them put its hand on the chest and I heard its speaking, a metal voice, almost cold. Then it pointed at the other and said it again.  
I looked at Jessa and she gave me a thumbs-up, I walked to her and saw the recording of them, I marked for playback. I pointed to Jessa and then me and said “Human” again. Then I pointed at them and played the recording. It said something again, it said something and then repeated itself; [vocal2vocal1].  
I pointed at the door and asked: “What is that?”  
The humanoid paused and pointing at the door said something. The recording was different this time I saved as [vocal3]. Again I pointed at the door while playing the recording back [vocal3]. It responded, judging by the spectrograph, it looked like [vocal3vocal2], it was confirming what I was saying.  
I looked at the computer, delimiting some part of the recordings and tried to jot down a hard draft: “humanoid” for [vocal1], “yes” for [vocal2], and “door” for [vocal3]. Then I typed “Language: Humanoid A”.  
Jessa was looking over my shoulder “What’s the A for?”  
“It’s just to separate this language from any other languages they might use,” I said, she made an O sound in agreement.  
“Now let’s try something fun” I pointed at one of them and tried to mimic the sound on the recording [vocal1]. Almost instantly the humanoid made a nasal sound while the other turned around putting a hand on its mouth “I think they are making fun of you” Jessa chuckled. “Probably”.  
I tried again a few more times but with no success. Only when I replayed the recording they would answer me. “So we’re stuck using the recordings?” Jessa asked, opening a folding chair and sitting down. “For now...We need to make sure they aren’t just saying we look cute or something...get comfortable, this is going to take a while.” 

I remember one night in 2002 I am around six when I had a dream about a boy. He will look sad and I’ll feel like he is alone. At this point, I won’t remember the details but I will recall the feeling and some flashes. I am sitting next to the metal door, he will be on the other side of this white room, sitting in a bed, he is with his hands on his eyes, crying, and won’t seem to notice me; I would hear a raspy voice coming out from an intercom.   
“We are almost there, Ben, don’t forget your Holo”   
He will wipe his tears and his nose with the back of his hand, get up and press a button while answering “Ok dad”. He will turn around to open the door and stop walking, looking directly at me; he would see me.  
“Hi” I’ll say and wave my hand.   
He won’t answer, he will close his eyes and disappear. 

Jessa and I entered the college Library after walking along The Cloisters. Inside it looked like they were ready to fight; soldiers coming and going, talking on cell via satellite and drawing on big maps of the city; a mess.  
We intercepted the Lieutenant-General after he left one of his thousands of meetings with the president. “Doesn’t look like you got far..”  
“I have an idea that might help me to be faster but I’ll need some equipment,” I said walking by his side looking down at my pad.  
“Such as?” He asked not looking at me.  
“A digital camera, a whiteboard and some pens” I checked my pad again to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. He stopped, looking at me with a puzzled look. “I’m trying a different approach, one that involves writing, I will write the word and the camera will capture anything that they might write back.”  
“Just...You know we want to show little of our technology as possible”  
“I know and this is nothing we aren’t already using or doing, I believe I can make a lot more progress if I have an idea if they have a writing system.”  
“Jessa? What are your thoughts?” He asked, turning around to face her.   
“It’s a smart idea, we can use their answers to communicate and using the board will make sure they can see what we are doing, I thought about using a monitor but it might be difficult for them, using a board is less technological...I suppose.”  
Nellan thought for a second, Jessa’s answer might have helped him agree with us “less technology” was always the way. “Request granted. You can talk to the general before leaving and take the equipment before departure tomorrow morning” he answered walking away to a desk with soldiers.

I remember one day before he left me on Jakku. He’s been telling me everything that happened until the day I was supposed to find a droid. If I hadn’t agreed in coming with him the last timeline would repeat itself; he will become Kylo for good, no one to stop him, Han, Leia, Chewie, and the Resistance would all be doomed - all because he never get the chance to find his other half; the rest of the dyad.  
“How am I supposed to find BB-8?” I’ll ask him, taking mental notes  
“BB-8 will find you, just make sure to never stop for too long in one spot, you are a scavenger now.” He will say giving me a kiss.   
“Then I have to wander around waiting for Finn? How do I know it’s  _ the _ Finn” I asked, taking a bite of what would be one of my last good meals for a while.  
“After you find the droid, stay on Niima Outpost, Finn is supposed to be there, BB-8 will identify him”   
“What if I don’t find them, Ben?”   
“Kylo will kill them all -  _ I  _ will kill them” He will say, hiding his face in shame.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ ETON COLLEGE MAP](https://br.pinterest.com/pin/239676011391767593/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> R'iia helped me SO MUCH she's amazing!! make sure to check her stuff [R'iia's Twitter](https://twitter.com/RiiasShorts)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little shorter than what I expected BUT wait for it...

At our next session at the barrier, we repeated the methods we used before; this time I wrote the word on a whiteboard while saying the word: writing HUMAN while saying “Human”. Eventually, the humanoids understood what was happening; while one wrote the word on the glass barrier, the other spoke what was written. It looked like letters, but not exactly, some letters looked the same with some line added here and there. With time we settled into a routine. Thankfully their writing was somewhat alphabetic, so that made things easy.  
By getting close to the barrier and noticing the mist wasn’t thick, as usual, I could see the humanoids more clearly. The one in black was wearing heavy clothes, a cape, and a glued-together mask...wonder what happened to it. The other, in light beige colors, was wearing loose clothes and had a white beard-- an old man. Now I understand where the metal voice was coming from: the old one never spoke, the metal aspect was coming from the dark-clothed one’s mask. I wanted to ask why they use the mask and what they are hiding, but those sorts of questions would have to wait.  
I tried asking if they had names. They didn't answer, the one with the mask kept looking at me, but nothing came out from their mouth, so for Jessa’s and my desires, we called them Melon and Peach. Peach being the one all in black, and Melon the other.  
Before entering my dorm I called Jessa. “I’ll need your help tomorrow,” I told her, holding my keys.  
“Sure. With what, exactly?”  
“We need to start using some verbs, and that would be easier in third-person. Can you act out some verbs while I write them on the board? If they’ve been paying attention, Peach and Melon will figure out what is happening and do the same”  
“That sounds fun,” said Jessa, opening her door. “Goodnight Rey.”  
We began with some simple verbs: eating, writing, jumping, screaming; the last one made Melon jump a little, and I had to suppress a laugh. Jessa demonstrated each one as if she was a cartoon character. For the first few verbs Jessa performed, I asked the humanoids, “What is that?” With no time the humanoids understood what we were trying to do: Melon began mimicking Jessa, while Peach wrote on the glass and spoke it aloud.  
On my computer, I could recognize the word I had saved as “humanoid”. The rest of the phrase was presumably the verb; it looked like they had analogs of nouns and verbs, thankfully.  
In their writing, things were kinda confusing. For each action, they had written it down without any spaces between the words. I thought maybe they had written with the subject implied, but that would be weird. Why would Peach say “the humanoid walks”? Why not maintain parallelism? Some phrases looked like the word for “humanoid” with some extra letters and extra strokes added here and there.   
“Let’s try something else,” I said to Jessa, giving her a sandwich  
Melon left and after a while came back with a blue package and a bowl of water. Melon poured the content of the package inside the bowl, mixing with his fingers, in a second a bread appeared.  
“It looks like astronaut food,” Jessa told me, amazed.  
Jessa ate her sandwich, and I asked the question. Melon did the same while Peach wrote the phrase on the barrier. The phrase was odd; after some study, I could identify the elements for “humanoid” and “sandwich” with no spaces.   
“Wait!” I took another look at the writing.  _ They write like us with their own alphabet, and it's glass, _ I realized,  _ so maybe it's backwards. _ “Bloody hell”.  
“Something wrong, Doc?” asked Jessa.  
“It’s glass, and they are writing to themselves, so it's backward. That's why it's so confusing, we are seeing from the wrong side of the wall.” I showed her how the computer could reverse the image.   
"Oh my God," Jessa gasped.  
I felt a little dumb; it was right in front of me. I couldn't believe it. I looked at Peach and Melon in the barrier who were waiting for us to continue. The humanoids were cooperative, waiting and repeating when needed   
With time, they started teaching us their language without us needing to teach them English; Lieutenant-general couldn't have been happier, but at the same time, he was worried. It would take a while before we can ask why they came if it was just the two of them, and about their technology. 

It will have been three months after he left me in the desert when I hear a droid struggling. I will have spent most of my days scavenging for pieces to trade for food and learning other languages. I feel weird seeing the orange and white ball screaming and fighting with ropes, but I know that that is  _ the droid _ , so, standing up, I run to save it, stealing some pieces from the attacker while approaching. The droid follows me everywhere. Each day waiting for Finn ends in fighting for the droid. When a group of men tried to attack me, that is the day I see him, and BB-8 will have identified him by the jacket. Stormtroopers will follow us, and we steal a ship. I pretended to not recognize the ship but known exactly how to operate it, but no one will find it weird; maybe “the scavenger” just knew about ships.   
"We need to go to the Resistance base," Finn will tell me  
BB-8 would give the address. We will be stopped by Han and Chewie, I knew what will happen to Han, and I do nothing. Some things need to happen, and this was one of them. But it wasn't easy to see his body falling, and Ben- Kylo looking at me.

"What is happening?" Jessa asked, stopping what she was previously doing.  
I was too focused on trying to figure out the alphabet to look at her.  
"They are speaking a different language than before."   
"What" I stood up, paying attention.  
They were talking in a different language to each other. I looked at my laptop, and thankfully it was already recording. The language sounded similar to the one they were teaching us, with some parts of it sounding angry, like a warrior's language, I guessed as a long shot. That made me think,  _ We are learning quickly, but they were using one we didn't know so they could speak freely. What are they hiding? _ The question did not leave my mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last chapter, I'm a bit sad
> 
> THIS CHAPTER HAVE BIG CHUNKS OF THE STAR WARS SCRIPTS AND "STORY OF YOUR LIFE" PARTS. !!!I DO NOT CLAIM THEM AS MINE!!!

“I wonder if they already know how to speak our language but want us to learn theirs,” Jessa said.  
“Why do you think that?” I asked, biting my sandwich.  
“Well...they were speaking a different language, probably so we couldn’t understand them, so maybe they really just want to teach us their language the harder way.”  
“Yeah, that’s entirely possible. Finding out why they use a second language will tell us a lot about them.”  
I let that sink in for a second, maybe Jessa is right. I looked at Melon and Peach in the barrier. “What are you two doing here?”  
Over the weeks, everything was normal: no more different languages, and things were going quite fast. I could understand most of their phrases, while they still didn’t try speaking our language. The Lieutenant-General was not particularly happy about it, always thinking about the implications of that.

I remember feeling tired, but more sad than tired when I’m kneeling, ready to fail my mission when he hesitated. That gave me leverage, so I stabbed him with my lightsaber, using his moment of pain.  
I sensed Leia dying to save him.  
I was healing him, I couldn’t lose him.  
“I did want to take your hand, Ben’s hand,” I say, running away and stealing his ship.

  
  


I spent the night reading things they gave me and creating my own phrases. Now I knew their alphabet-- a win. That meant we could write and talk; unfortunately, I didn’t manage to learn how to pronounce the words and got only two hours of sleep.

  
  
We are talking, I would feel the rain on my body, letting the anger pass.  
“This could be how we win.” I will say to Luke.  
“This is not going to go the way you think.”   
“It is. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn.” I make sure to him; Luke could have failed Ben, but I wouldn’t  
“Rey, don't do this.” 

  
  
  


The humanoids were ready for the math and physics talk, but that didn’t go too far. They understood the concept of everything but couldn’t understand how to do any of it, besides basic arithmetic. Jessa and the others had only  _ some _ progress when talking about engineering and motor pieces.  
By contrast, I was having much more success.  
It had been almost a year since the ship arrived, but we didn’t get the answers the army wanted, and by now, other countries were trying to know what was taking so long. France and the Netherlands were talking about other types of approaches, by that the Lieutenant-General meant killing the aliens.  
I needed to buy more time.

It would be dark, but I was looking at this old man's face. He is too close to me, intimidating. The ceiling will open to show thousands of triangular-shaped ships, a lighting storm. I can see my friends on the verge of dying.  
“Only you have the power to save them,” he says.  
I will feel Ben arriving, a sense of hope growing inside of me.  
“Come on, Ben,” I will think.  
I’m turning the lightsaber on, buying some time; I could feel Ben in distress, no weapon, fighting the soldiers, and as I’m raising the lightsaber I will connect with him, looking at his face. I give him the saber, the fighting starting.  
He ran to my side, at that moment I knew that Kylo Ren is dead. We will be holding our sabers.  
“Stand together,  _ die _ together,” the man shout, making us kneel. 

I regularly asked the humanoids why they had come. Each time, they answered “to see”, or “to take”. Maybe they were scientists since sometimes they preferred to just sit and watch but never took anything. Was teaching them English a form of giving? Were they taking the language for themselves? The Army told me to reveal as little as possible about humanity, in case that information could be used  _ to take _ something. But the humanoids never asked questions that made us worry about these things.   
It was a weird thing to learn a language that I had so little knowledge of. Instead of worrying about pronunciation, I had taken to writing down the phrases or just seeing the word when I squeezed my eyes shut. One phrase I was stuck on for about an hour. I could understand everything besides  _ Jedi _ , and I thought maybe “Jedi” was someone or something related to their culture, but the phrase “We need to save the Jedi” referred to more than one individual, so it bugged me for the rest of the week. 

  
  


I remember seeing my friends dying, their ships falling. Ben won’t be next to me anymore. I’m all alone, and a rush of feeling passing through my body.  
“Be with me,” I will chant three times.  
I will hear old souls talking to me  
“Every Jedi who ever lived lives in you.”  
“You’re not alone, Rey.”  
“Rise.”  
I will stand on my feet, lightsaber in hand.  
“You are nothing! A scavenger girl is no match for the power in me. I am all the Sith!” I hear.  
Prepared to fight, feeling a force rooting me to the ground, I answer.  
_ “And I am all the Jedi.” _

  
  
  


It’s been a week since I last had more than three hours of sleep; I couldn’t sleep with my mind a hundred miles per minute thinking about the humanoids.  
It was four in the morning on a Thursday, and I was trying to solve some more phrases when I saw something in my peripheral vision: Peach. I was looking directly at the alien, but I was still inside my room. I got on my feet, pushing the chair to the wall.  
“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” I asked him.  
“Come to me,” he answered in English.  
I put my boots on, taking my jacket. I slowly opened the door, only to be greeted by an empty hall.  _ What happened to the soldier? _ I thought to myself but kept walking.  
I pushed the building door open, running to the field, my boots making a loud noise when I stepped on the rocky ground.   
I got to the ship, sweating and breathing in the night scent heavily.  
The tip of the ship was already waiting for me.  
As I walked down the ship’s hallway, I started to think about what I was doing, freaking out a little.  
The door was already open, and the room was filled with white smoke.  
“Rey, cyar'ika” I heard the metal voice call for me. “I’m Ben,” Peaches told me, taking the mask off. I walked up to him; he was beautiful, human.  
His jaw clenched when I kept staring at him. I couldn’t stop looking.  
“Ben,” I repeated.  
“We have a lot to talk about, Rey.” 

I will be watching the cold rain falling, getting ready to leave, my hand-stretched to the rain, drops of it making me chill.  
“Did he tell you what happened? The night I destroyed the temple?” He will ask me, ignoring my insults. 

"What does _cyar'ika_ means?" I tried saying the word, Ben had called me this a couple of times already, the language Jessa and I heard them speaking.  
"It means beloved, in Mandalorian, it's an ancient language" he replied  
He told me everything I needed to know.  
“My uncle broke my trust that day, I was lost, after spending most of my time hearing that he was the bad guy I finally gave up fighting.” He will tell me. We will be talking for hours now, I could hear the sirens at Eton College going off; I think they might be looking for me, after I left my dorm, with the phrase fully translated “We need to talk” left from the humano--Ben on my desk.   
“But Snoke was lying to you,  _ using you _ !” I protested.  
“I know that now. That’s why I need you.”

  
  
  


“I know everything I need to know about you!” I screamed.  
He looks at me with eyes of hope. _ Intriguing _ , I think.

  
  


I could hear the guns being loaded while I descended onto the tip of the ship.  
“Rey, what are you doing?” Jessa asked me, scared.  
“Hands where I can see them, Doc,” Lieutenant-General told me, every soldier pointing the gun at me.  
As I walked to them with my hand up in the skies, the ship turned on, the pressure sending all of us to the ground.  
“What did you do?” Neilan screamed.  
“They are leaving, they gave me what they wanted.”  
“What did they give you?”  
“A gift, to fix things” I answered, watching as the ship left the planet.  
“Fix _ what?” _   
I was taken to interrogation, explaining that I just wanted to translate some other things and couldn’t sleep, but not mentioning anything about Ben or that he was coming back for me.

I will smell his sweat, he will be so close to me. Snow falling around us.  
“You need a teacher! I can show you the ways of the Force!” He screams in my face.  
“The Force.” I will whisper, everything finally making sense.   
I close my eyes for a long beat. When I open them, I’m centered, fortified, and will pound back, single-handed swipes hitting Kylo’s spitting saber with incredible force.   
It's so fast now, so furious, that Kylo will fall back, and then I would attack harder! He gets up again but I hit his saber's hilt, his blade goes flying off, tumbling into the snow and I slash again and again and hit him square in the head and chest.   
He goes down, suddenly a fearful man: Ben, not Kylo, with a large burn scar slashed across his face! He still reaches for his saber. And I could kill him, right now, with  _ one vicious strike!  
_ But I will stop.   
Realizing I stand on a greater edge than even the cliff, the edge of the dark side, I won’t lose myself to save him.  
_ The earth shakes. The earth splits. _ Our soul is trying to save us from falling into the dark.

  
  


“Tell them to come back.” The Lieutenant-General was not happy.  
“I don’t think Peach is wearing a pager, sir,” I said.  
They let me go home, not needing me anymore.

Working with the humanoids changed my life. I met my other half and saved my friends, neither of those can make me happy right now, here at the supermarket in Hanna City. Eventually, many years from now, I’ll be happy and without him. So I pay close attention and note every detail.  
From the beginning, I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum or a maximum?  
These questions are in my mind when he tells me, “I need you to come with me.”   
I smile and answer, “Yes.”   
I unwrap his arms from around me, and we hold hands as we walk to the ship to go save them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> Ko-fi


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